In a rather surreal scenario, South Africa received unprecedented snowfall. The animals of the wildlife reserves, meanwhile, were caught off-guard. Big cats at a sanctuary in Harrismith are apparently not entirely familiar with that experience. The lions’ amused and playful behaviour exploring wintry conditions was filmed by GG Conservation, the group that is responsible for taking care of the big cats.
As per the Instagram post, the animals rarely encounter such a kind of climate and they seemed to be both “intrigued and cautious” of the “novel stuff falling from the skies.”
The exceptional snowfall occurred between Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa on September 20 and 21, and the resultant road havoc caused serious highway jams and several accidents. According to local authorities, the snow depth reached up to 2 meters above an altitude of 1,700 meters.
As for the lion sanctuary, its feline inhabitants have been captured on video watching the snowstorm. Most of the animals appear not to mind the snow so much while some of them look bewildered by the white substance that is falling from the sky.
“This is Luna and Snowdrop enjoying this new white stuff we hardly ever see. Mother nature can do anything she wants anywhere she wants,” the caption of one of the videos read.
“Unusual heavy snowfall early spring in South Africa so the first time ever we have been able to film the lions in deep snow,” GG Conservation’s Suzanne Scott told Yahoo News.
In their Instagram post, the conservation group noted that these big cats are fighters and can handle anything that may come their way. They also observed that the lions were not only pleased but roared through the storms and the snow. The group was amazed at the opportunity to identify new behaviours of the lions, noticing which ones were using the shelters and which weren’t, and which of the lions appeared to have fun.
The South African Weather Service advised that disruptive snow accumulations of between 15 and 30 centimetres were anticipated over the southwestern high ground of the Eastern Cape, KZN’s western and southern regions, eastern Free State and the Mpumalanga highveld and escarpment. This snowfall was expected to take place predominantly on Friday, 20 September and last through Saturday morning, 21 September.
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